San Antonio Spurs Dynasty

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Easing In

April 18, 2016 /

2016 Western Conference Playoffs, First Round
San Antonio 106, Memphis 74
Spurs lead series 1-0

Credit to the Spurs: they have more appropriate fear of these Grizzlies than most of their fans.

It’s easy to see why. There is a massive dearth of top-level NBA talent on this Memphis roster. Zach Randolph is probably the ‘truest’ NBA player remaining on their roster, and this ain’t 2011 Z-Bo. The Spurs contained him pretty easily in Game 1, and if he can’t score, what chance does the rest of the squad have?

Vince Carter had a great game, but I think the Spurs can live with a 39-year-old on his last legs being the go-to scoring option.

Lance Stephenson had his moments, and I’m sure everyone on the Spurs’ coaching staff would be more than happy to see him try and win a game on his own.

Tony Allen and Matt Barnes are nice complementary players, but the shine dulls rather quickly when they are thrust into primary roles, particularly on the offensive end. Allen, in particular, took some shots tonight that might have been worse than attempts I would have taken in a professional NBA game. He is hampered by a bad hamstring, but still.

So where does that leave us? With a great, low-cost, high-reward opportunity. The Spurs have four games to work out the kinks, get into a playoff groove, and be ready for a much tougher opponent coming down the line.

And after a slow first half, the Spurs had plenty to be happy about:

• Tony Parker looks great. He may never again be that Tony Parker, but he can still be a strong playoff performer. The rest and maintenance program may have no bigger benefactor than Parker, as he enters the playoffs fresh and healthy. He showed signs of his trademark burst all game, and was able to attack the rim, something the offense desperately needs.

• In the second half, some 3-pointers started to fall, and wouldn’t you know it, the offense really opened up. We all know about the Spurs using the midrange shot as a market inefficiency, but that shot becomes a lot more useful when the team is a threat from deep and at the rim.

In the 4th quarter, in particular, some players that needed to see some shots go in were able to. Patty Mills hit a few threes, and then Kevin Martin hit a few threes. This is where the value in ‘garbage time’ can exist: confidence and rhythm. Mills has been struggling all season to consistently hit an open 3, and we all know how important that is to the offense. And Martin – a good career shooter – has suffered from the typical ‘new Spur’ shooting syndrome. If any of these made shots gives him confidence moving forward, it can be a huge plus for the team.

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• Kawhi was a monster on both ends of the court. He might be the only Finals MVP (and Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season) who actually has something to prove in the playoffs. Last year, the weight of the team’s success fell to him in the first round against the Clippers, and he wasn’t quite ready for it. This season’s playoffs are set up to see if he really is a foundational and transformational player. The way he shot the ball and flat out took it from the Grizzlies players on defense amounts to a good first step.

• I thought Aldridge had some nerves in the first few minutes of the game, which would be natural given his playoff history, and how badly he wants to achieve with this team. This first round may be most important for him, to find his rhythm, for him to settle down and not press, and to feel as comfortable in the post-season as he became at the end of the regular season. Like Kawhi, Game 1 was a good start for him.

• Despite a slow offensive start, the defense looked fantastic. Everybody was totally locked in, and the Grizzlies only managed to get to 70 points because the game was such a blowout that the Spurs allowed a whopping 23 points in the 4th quarter garbage time. Slackers.

We might not learn anything substantive in this first round. But no news is probably good news. If the Grizzlies were able to give us any sort of trouble, that’d probably spell doom for the Spurs in the later rounds. If the Spurs are the team that we all think they are, they will take care of this series quickly and without much fuss or fireworks.

All the while sharpening up for the later rounds.

Game 2 is tomorrow night.

Go Spurs Go.

Playoff Preview: Spurs vs Grizzlies

April 17, 2016 /

As we begin the process of another playoff run, let me ask you a question: when was the last time the Spurs played a solid end-to-end basketball game?

You could counter with: “When was the last time the Spurs played a meaningful basketball game?” And you would have a point. Perhaps this is to the benefit of the Warriors, who had a historic chase to keep them engaged and sharp.

Remember that mythical point differential, the stat that could possibly secretly show that the Spurs were better than the Warriors? The Warriors ended the season with a better point differential (+10.8) than the Spurs (+10.6), after the Spurs were on pace to set the all-time record earlier in the season.

But let’s go back to the initial question. When was the last time the Spurs impressed in a victory? I’ve got Miami at home on March 23rd, at least 3 weeks ago. That was right after the victory against Golden State (and the subsequent collapse against Charlotte), so maybe the Spurs saw what they needed to in that Warriors game and put it in cruise control until the playoffs.

It’s hard to blame them. The team was locked into that #2 seed for months, long before it became official. The regular season is long, and it can be hard to find meaning in games that ultimately have no bearing on the playoffs, especially for a team like the Spurs, where the playoffs are the only thing. You work every day to be a little better, but sometimes that ‘little better’ has little bearing on the actual NBA games being played, and the path of the long-term process diverges significantly with the path of the regular season.

The problem with the metaphorical cruise control is that it can be really easy to get stuck in it. Sometimes the playoffs jar you out of it violently, and sometimes they completely overwhelm you, submarining an otherwise magnificent season.

In this regard, the Spurs have the best first-round draw in the NBA, perhaps one of the best ever. The 2016 Memphis Grizzlies are not the lovable grit-and-grind Grizzlies that we’ve faced (and beaten) so many times over the last half-decade. This is a Grizzlies team decimated by injury, fielding a roster barely above D-League standards. They limped into the playoffs, only winning 1 of their final 11 games, sliding from the 5-seed down to the 7-seed.

They might be the worst playoff team of all-time, and that’s not hyperbole. There’s no way they should beat the Spurs. If it goes longer than 5 games, it should be considered a huge over achievement and a mild upset for the Spurs.

I don’t even feel the need to do analysis, positional match-ups, X-factors, secret keys, or any other prognostication work. The Spurs got the luck of the draw, and have a pretty easy road into the second round. Even saying it aloud can’t jinx it.

The upside? Perhaps this match-up can knock the Spurs out of cruise control without upsetting any of the delicate machinery. The Spurs can use the four (maybe five) games to regain rhythm, get used to the increased intensity (because you know the Grizzlies can still bring that), get their sharpness back, and perhaps even work out a few wrinkles for the next round.

About that next round: beating the Thunder is not a given. Plenty of people are talking like the Spurs-Warriors Western Conference Finals is a given, an immutable fact of fate. Not so fast. This OKC team is scary, would still have two of the three best players in the series, and are probably playing better than the Spurs, in the aggregate, over the last month. If the two teams had to start a series today, I’d probably pick the Thunder, based on what I’ve seen from the Spurs in April.

But that series, if it happens, is still a few weeks away. A lot can change in a few weeks. The Spurs have a favorable first round opponent. Let’s hope they use it to their advantage.

Go Spurs Go.

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